


Running with a Tougher Crowd Now

by orphan_account



Category: Cher Lloyd - Fandom, Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: 50's AU, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Drama, Excessive Homosexuality, F/F, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 02:44:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was Zayn's idea. Maybe if they ganged up, they'd stop getting jumped for being queer.<br/>This is SO dark. Even by my standards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So 50's slang is my new favorite thing and I used it quite liberally

March 26, 1953

9:27 pm

Harry was doubled over, heaving the contents of his lunch onto the rain-dampened concrete. Cher held his slick hair back from his forehead, her eyes scanning the alley nervously. It was the second time this week he'd been jumped and the last black eye was just starting to turn a purple-ish green. 

"C'mon, Haz, gotta get you home." He groaned meekly in reply. Cher glanced down the alley again. Harry was far too big for her to drag on her own, and there was blood on his mouth. Finally, he pulled himself to his feet and together they trudged towards the Style's flat.

Cher was glad she'd found Harry still breathing, but secretly, she was also glad it wasn't her. They'd pulverize teddies like Harry, sure, but they raped girls like Cher. And if not for that square, Liam, showing up last time, they'd have had her, too.

 

March 30, 1953

7:18 pm

Louis hip-checked Cher, nearly sending her flying on her rollerskates.

"Know your groceries, Lou, cripes!" Cher snapped, brandishing a tray of empty dishes. 

"Cow-eyes over there's had his jaw on the floor for the last half hour." Louis jerked his head in the direction of a dark boy in a leather jacket.

"You could start a bonfire with the grease in his hair," Cher observed when she had a moment to spare him a glance. "And he's got eyes for Hazza," her eyes cut across the room to find her young friend, "he's got a beating coming for him if pulls anything funny."

"Your roof is leaking! The cat's a fruit," Perrie, another waitress countered as she sailed by.

Cher stopped and stared. "Full stop. So he is." She nodded in approval.

"See, none's getting jumped tonight," Louis reassured.

But he was wrong.

They found out that the dark kid's name was Zayn as they pulled him out of the bin behind the hop after work. His pretty face was mess up and his hair was destroyed, but he assured them that one of the other lads had looked far worse. There had been 4 of them. Louis was amazed that he was still alive. The gangs in the neighborhood were vicious.

 

April 1, 1953

9:21 pm

Harry just had to run off with Louis. Of course. Cher'd caught them snogging last week during Louis's smoke break. So now she was dodging shadows on her way home, trying to avoid would-be rapist convinced they could turn her off birds. As if.

"Well, if isn't the king dyke hisself," Cher about jumped out of her skin at the voice, but it wasn't directed at her. Up the street, she could see cluster of figures, one of them a real looker, by the shape of it. The girl crushed a fag under the heel of her work boots.

"Vomit on the table, lads." She growled. Cher observed with awe as the girl flipped out a butterfly knife. "I've got a lass waiting on me over there." She tilted her head toward Cher, and Cher, deciding to play along, blew her a kiss and sauntered up the street. She liked the odds three on two better than three on one, especially if blades were getting involved. But by the time she reached the gaggle, the lads were starting to look nervous, as though they'd barked up the wrong tree. 

At the end of the night, Jesy (that was her name) and Cher were no worse off. Incidentally, some snogging may have occurred.

 

April 10, 1953

2:56 pm

Louis was chasing Zayn around the hop with a bottle of vinegar after Zayn had wiped the grease from his fish and chips on Louis's trousers. Cher was perched on Jesy's lap, lazily making out on the spinning stools, carefully concealed by the closed blinds. The hop was about as queer as humanly possibly when it wasn't open. Perrie was in the kitchen flirting with the new short-order cook, Leigh-Ann, who supposed had just broken up with her boyfriend, but Perrie was never one to back down from a challenge.

Suddenly, the front door banged open. Zayn and Louis sprung apart (they'd been wrestling under one of the tables) as did Cher and Jesy, fearing the worst. It was the owner's daughter, Jade, trailed by that square, Liam again. In Liam's arms was the battered body of Niall, Harry's latest boy. Harry was the only one still in school, and Niall had been waiting around to pick him up when he'd gotten the crap beaten out of him. At least, that was what they collectively pieced together through Harry's violent sobbing. Niall was deposited on bench of the prized corner booth without another thought as Jade hunted down the first aid kit.

 

April 10, 1953

9:13 pm 

Jade had finally shooed the last of the customers out and Cher was lying on her back in a booth, groaning as Liam and Jesy untied and removed her rollerskates. Harry scrubbed the corner booth where the vague smell of Niall's blood lingered, pausing occasionally to spare a love-struck glance Niall's way. Leigh-Ann was feeding him a packet of crisps and generally fussing over his battered body, combing his slick hair out of his face.

"I been thinking," Zayn said suddenly, lifting his feet as Louis skated past, pushing a broom. 

"Nifty," Perrie deadpans, wiping down the counter.

"No, seriously! If things keep up at this rate, this lot's gonna end up in the ground before Harry's had a chance to graduate secondary. I mean how many times have you gotten jumped?"

The diner went silent, as everyone counted. 

"Well? I'd have it nine times, though they only got away with it twice," Zayn added smugly, earning him a kiss from Louis.

"Six," Jesy replied tersely.

Cher grabbed her hand without looking, "four times, last I counted."

"Me too," Harry chimed in.

Niall held up seven fingers, though Cher strongly suspected he's been jumped for reasons other than liking boys as had Zayn, no doubt. It was a rough neighborhood already, even harder on immigrants.

They continued around the room rattling off numbers until only Louis remained. His eyes were screwed shut and he was counting on his fingers. At last his eyes flew open and he cleared his throat for dramatic effect.

"Twenty-three times."

"Come off it!" Harry wailed, looking utterly distraught.

"I believe it," Jade shook her head. "If you were any more flamboyant we'd have to keep you away from open flames. And you can't keep your mouth shut, so I'm hardly surprised." There was a collective head shaking and Liam's eyes were wide. Apart from Jade, he was the only straight kid, and if not for a heart of solid gold, he probably would have stayed out of this mess, but people kept getting attacked in front of him.

"So my thought is that we ought to form a gang, lads and birds, for protection. I already know you lot've got my back. And I've got yours." There were general sounds of agreement. Jade and Liam excused themselves out of respect, Jade warning Louis to lock the place up for the night when they were done.

And thus the Ninth Street Gang was born, in the corner booth of the Ninth Street Diner.


	2. Part 2

June 23,1953

4:47 am

Niall woke to a loud pounding on the door of his tiny, dingy flat. He rolled off the couch that served as his bed and pulled on a worn-out wife beater to open the door.

"Cor, it's not 5 in the-" he stopped short when he saw Jesy, a cut above her eye bleeding profusely. He stepped back as she push inside, trailed by Leigh-Ann, Zayn, and Louis. 

"Don't lock that!" Louis snapped, as Niall reached for the chain."Hazza and Perrie are coming too."

"What's the deal? And where's Cher?" Niall demanded.

"Buggery! She's not here?!" Jesy rose from her spot on the sagging sofa, terror scrawled across her round face. 

"Cool it." Louis commanded, taking control of the situation. He turned to Niall as Harry and Perrie slipped through the door, panting hard. "The clowns from the wharf threw a brick through Zayn's window. Right into his little sisters' bedroom. So naturally, we had to get even with the chumps." Harry grunted in agreement. In the last two months since they'd joined forces, they'd become even more hated, but at least there was greater safety in numbers

"What did you do?" Niall asked eagerly.

"Torched the warehouse where they muck around," Perrie grinned fiercely. 

"Blimely,"Niall croaked. "All of you?" 

Zayn nodded. "And Cher. But she must have split in another direction."

"How come this is the first I'm hearing of this?" Niall groaned.

"We live in the same complex," Jesy pointed out, indicating herself and rest of the girls. They were renting a cramped two bedroom flat "And Louis snuck in through Zayn's window again."

Niall turned to his boyfriend, who just shrugged. "I wasn't there, they just picked me up on the way over.

"Can we please go back for Cher now?" Jesy begged tearfully, her usual bravado falling again under the dim light. Leigh-Ann wrapped her arms around her, comfortingly as Zayn nodded grimly. 

"You cats stay here, in case she shows up, you dig?" he motioned at Harry, Niall and Perrie. "Right then, the rest of you, with me." Quickly, quietly, Louis, Leigh-Ann, Jesy and Zayn filed out Niall's front door.

 

June 24, 1953

6:36 pm

"Zayn, Jesy, she's here!" Jade's shriek cut through the diner like a bolt of electricity. Jesy was up and out of the booth before the news registered with anyone else. Perrie promptly dropped her tray and Harry collapsed against Louis in relief. Zayn was hot on Jesy's heels, but he saw the scared, grim look on Jade face as she hurried to the front of the diner. 

"Closed! We're closed, I'm sorry! Please pay your tab and leave. I'm terribly sorry!" Jade announced, her voice sounding far calmer than she felt. 

She had found Cher when she was emptying the bins, a bloody, broken mess. Jade was still unsure of what had happened the previous morning, but she knew the gang had spent and exhausting, unsuccessful day searching for their lost member. Cher was breathing, but that was about the only sign that she was still alive.

The diner cleared out far too slowly for Jade's liking. Zayn had Cher in his arms, just behind the kitchen doors, and Jesy's sobs were audible. Harry was growing progressively paler by the second, trying to politely shoo people out, while Louis displayed no such tact, whisking have finished plates away from customers with nothing more that a "have you quite finished?".

At last, the diner emptied out and Leigh-Ann pushed the doors open for Zayn. He laid Cher gingerly on the corner booth, before stripping off his own shirt to cover her legs. The long skirt had been ripped, as though someone had tried to cut it off, before giving up and shoving up. Her shirt was missing entirely, she only wore her jacket. 

Perrie pushed past Zayn, rolling up her sleeves and peeling off Cher's soiled clothes. The boys quickly averted their eyes, but not before it was apparent her underclothes were gone. Jesy was gasping for air, bellowing in anguish as the realization hit them all. 

"Damn it all!" The outburst came from Louis, who nearly punch a hole in the wall, his fist left a deep dent where the plaster had buckled. 

"That's sick," whined Niall, his face crumpling. He'd been the most innocent of the lot, and he hid his face in Harry's neck.

"They've gone too far this time," Leigh-Ann growled, looking murderous. 

Jade was stroking Jesy hair gently."Pez, what do you think? Should be ring the hospital? Can we trust the bobby?"

Perrie took a great shaky breath. "I don't know. There's too much- too much blood," she blanched. "I-we've got to try."

Zayn nodded. "I'll ring for an ambulance."

 

June 25, 1953

1:09 am

They were sprawled across the sterile pastic chairs, dozing off. It had been nearly six hours since Cher had been taken, when a nurse came out and announced her name. 

"Cher Lloyd?" 

Louis shoved everyone awake and padded over to the nurse. 

"I'm sorry. We couldn't do anything for her."

There was a moment of silence as the gravity of her statement sunk in to their sleep-deprived states. 

Leigh-Ann was the first to react. "What is that supposed to mean?! She wasn't on bloody death bed!" Louis and Niall quickly caught Jesy as she collapsed in shock.

The nurse looked alarmed in the face of angry greasers. "She had a gang tattoo! We can't treat gangsters here! It's isn't safe for the rest of the patients!" She trilled defensively. 

Harry's eyes went dark with fury. "How DARE you! She was our friend, she wasn't just some-some ruddy tart off the street!"

"She died on your hands!" Jesy screamed. "You could have treated her and you let her die! Her blood is on you head!" She struggled to break free of Niall and Louis's restraining hold, before falling back into their arms, trembling. 

August 11, 1953

9:53 am

Louis dropped the day's paper down on the front counter. Zayn was sharing a fag with Niall. 

"Seems someone torched the hospital," he noted lightly as he passed through the swinging doors on his way to the kitchen for a cuppa.

Perrie leaned across them and flipped it open, casual in front of the customers. "Bunch of suspected gang dens been dismantled, too," she read.

"Hmm." Harry skated past, a urn of hot coffee balanced on a tray. "That's good news for the neighborhood, now, innit?"

 


End file.
